Week 47/2022

Find PARENT/GRANDPARENT Calendar Date!

In a search expression, PARENT and GRANDPARENT can be used to refer to the node that the search expression is nested directly underneath, and the node one level up. We’ve now made it possible to use these for date searches if you refer to a daily node. This works for Calendar date (previously known as “Date from ancestor day node”), Due date, or any date field that you create.

Switch your primary Workspace

You can now switch your primary workspace. If you have imported your Roam (or Logseq/Obsidian) graph, and you want to make that your primary workspace, or you would like to “start over”, you can choose “Set as new root workspace” (only available on workspaces where you are the only user).

Your existing root workspace will still be available from the + at the bottom of the left sidebar (and can now be shared with others).

Note that all preferences and settings follow the workspace, including your progress through onboarding (so you’ll once again see the “Welcome to Tana” screen initially). Video that explains it in more detail.

Promote a field to become part of a Supertag!

You can now promote local fields to become part of the tag! The idea of gradually emerging structures is one of Tana’s greatest strengths, and this makes it even easier. If you add a field to an instance of a tag, you can promote the field to become part of the tag with a single click. The same can be done from table columns.

Convert a Table of nodes and fields into a Supertag!

You can now extract tags from tables! You don’t always know ahead of time whether the table you’re setting up should become a tag or not. In the past, it would require some manual surgery to build out a tag with the corresponding columns afterwards. Now, this can be done with a single click. We’ll create a new tag with the name of the table, add each column as fields in the tag, and apply the tag to each row in the table.

New feature: Pinned nodes

Pinned nodes just went out! A lot of you have mentioned that having the home node double as the primary navigation restricts the way you use your home node, since the ideal structure for organising things does not necessarily make a good structure for navigation. You can now easily pin any node in the sidebar, either by dragging it there, or via the Pin command.

Easier way to create a search based on References

We’ve now made it much easier to get references to a node into a search - where you can view as table/card, group, filter, add contextual columns etc. Simply right click on a header in the Reference section to create a search, or on the header of a field section to either search for nodes where the node is referenced in that field, or add a generic search to the tag template. You can also use Cmd/Ctrl+K Search references when you are on a node anywhere in the graph.

Video where I showcase the functionality more in detail.

Note that all of these searches were already possible before, and there is nothing “magical” about them - we are just making it easier and more convenient to create them.

Other fixes and improvements:

Tana Paste no longer matches against nodes in trash

Tana Intermediate Format now sets the correct code block language (will be supported by Roam importer in the future)

Selecting multiple fields with mouse and deleting should work better

Custom keyboard shortcuts that match multiple lines, like “Insert time” should now immediately execute if one line matches perfectly

Fields look cleaner in search results/autocomplete

Fix crash when column header is added to a table without children